IN REMEMBRANCE

 

Have you noticed how often ‘remembrance’ is used in the scriptures? Remembering the history of ‘the fathers’ seemed to have been an ancient method of motivating people to obedience. Nephites were often prompted to remember not only the children of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt but also of Lehi’s journey to the promised land. Both of these events are depicted in the account of King Benjamin’s farewell speech where the people ‘sat in their tents’ during the renewal of their covenants to help them remember Israelites’ living in tents for 40 years and Lehi’s 8 years of tent living in the wilderness. Remembering was anciently the key factor in covenant renewal. King Benjamin speaks of ‘remembering’ 15 times in his speech to his sons and to the people gathered to hear him (Mosiah 1:3,4,6,7,17; 2:40 twice, 41 twice; 4:11,28,30; 5:11,12; 6:3).

What stood out to me this morning, as I read about the end of King Benjamin’s life, is that prior to his death, he appointed priests to teach the people ‘that thereby they might hear and know the commandments of God, and to stir them up in remembrance of the oath which they had made’  (Mosiah 6:3). The oath, of course, was the covenant which they had made ‘to take upon them the name of Christ and that they should be obedient unto the end of their lives’ (Mosiah 5:8).

When I was growing up in the Catholic community of Croatia, I was stirred into remembrance of Christ constantly as every home, including my own, had pictures of Him in every room. I am not exaggerating here. I now paste pictures of Him in my journal and my planner constantly. I have done this for years. I think I have subconsciously wanted to continue that habit of visual remembrance.

There are of course many ways we can remember the covenants we have made here, the most obvious being temple attendance and weekly sacrament. More extensive ones are: reading the scriptures daily, daily consecration during prayer, and simple gratitude in recounting your blessings and God’s goodness to you. In that vein, of late I have acquired a daily habit upon rising. My first thought is: How can I honour the Saviour today?

I pledged my life into Thy hands

When by example You showed me how;

I promised my trials to endure

When I was with You and do so even now.

 

You dried my tears when I barely coped

And carried me when I could walk no more;

You fed me truths I needed to know

And nurtured my flight into the unknown.

 

As I promised to obey,

You promised we’d never part;

I remember, I remember

And carry it all

In the shadow of my heart.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Lamb of God by Greg Olsen)